Fairly straight-forward subject.. Which Class at release (or possibly beta) are you looking forward to trying the most, and why? Assuming, that is, all of the base classes from the core rule book make it, including prestige classes, and that they are as true to the pen and paper version classes as possible in this game.

What do you think will be fun/difficult about playing this class in what is very similar to an expanded Kingmaker Campaign (i.e, exploration, mining, etc)?

What kind of non-class specific skills would you look into?

Basically, I'm curious as to what everyone's looking forward to trying first, and get a discussion going about their hopes on the class specifics.

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I personally am primarily looking forward to a Wizard (Dwarf, of course), as not only am I currently playing one in a campaign with friends, but they've always been a favorite. Though, a close second would be either a cleric or ranger.

I think what would be difficult for a wizard is their general lack of solo-ness. I could see Conjurers and possibly Enchanters being good soloists (For summons and Charms, respectively). What would be fun about them? Being a hoarder of spells and know-it-all of magic. >:D

As for the non-class specific skills I'd look into.. probably magic-item creation (Especially golems, if its possible.. and man do I hope it is) for the most part. Though food preparation and brewing would be close seconds if they're available.

It really depends on how the gameplay feels. So it's really difficult to tell that in advance. For example, I really like melee fighting in Guild Wars 2, but I hated it in World of Warcraft. I really liked playing a casting priest in Age of Conan, but I didn't like it in pretty much any MMORPG I've ever tried. So gameplay-wise it's all about the feeling of it.

Roleplaying-wise I'd love to play a bard or ranger, basically every "Robin-Hood-Chaotic-Good"-class. I even could see a chaotic evil Orc fighter... Man, I could nearly see anything. But I'll wait until more is revealed before I can really make an informed choice :)

But yeah, it will be hard to know for sure until we see the gameplay. I myself, started off as a ranged class in WoW (Huntard), hating how mages were just spam one button all the time. Mages have since gotten fun (Hehe Orc Fire Mage), but the game itself has gotten bleargh.

While in DDO, my main was a rogue, as Wizards felt.. I'unno.. I COULDNT' CRAFT ANYTHING. I love crafting, at least as a side job.

I'm looking forward to playing a wizard. in fact I'm seiously thinking of going a wizard 7 / cleric 3 / mystic theurge 10. It would mean losing the capstone abilities of the two classes, but it would also mean that by level 20 I could have a character with access to 9th level wizard spells and 7th level clerical spell. However, its hard to know whether the flexibility granted from such a character early on is worth it. Then again is it worth waiting 5 years to get a level 20 wizard and level 20 cleric? Hard to know until more is revealed about how the classes and skill systems will actually work.

For me, my character will probably be a TWF ranger that has some splashes of the fighter archetype skill progression (from what I saw, the 11 base classes are going to be in at launch for character archetypes, don't know about prestige though, I didn't see anything about that on the Goblinworks blog post about characters from back January). I became a fan of the fighter/ranger idea when I was playing D&D 3.5 back in the day, before I even knew anything about Drizzt. I just loved the ability to track people around carrying two weapons with bonuses against favored enemies!

After that I think I'd create a wizard-like character that doesn't directly stick to the archetype, which would hopefully be able to become a crafter so I can have some sustainability in the marketplace for all of my characters while having an arcane caster to mess with. Pretty much after that my later characters are up in the air. I just found out about Pathfinder Online a little while ago, and I'm really excited to see how they're going to be porting Pathfinder into video games.

Crusty, I'm really with you on the hope of golem crafting being in the game, I'm a huge fan of creating constructs so fingers crossed! Either way, the tech demo will shed some light on the game a bit! :)

EDIT: Actually just re-checked the blog post, from what it said it looks like prestige classes might not be available until after launch and some more work is done, at least according to this quote (taken from the blog post Your Pathfinder Online Character at Goblinworks.com):

Goblinworks.com: Your Pathfinder Online Character Blog Post wrote:

Each of the base classes in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook will be represented in the online game in this way, and in time we intend to add additional development paths to simulate prestige classes, archetypes, and base classes from other Pathfinder RPG content such as the Advanced Player's Guide and the Ultimate rulebooks.

Bard. If only to have an excuse to hit Shuffle on my music folder every time a fight starts. Plus, I like their Buff/Debuff/Melee/Skill Monkey/Jack-of-all-Trades feel. (Not sure how much of that is translating into PFO, but still...) They're like rogues, but less stab-stab and more friendliness/utility. But still not to be underestimated.

If I had to pick a second... Sorcerer. Or maybe Cleric. Less bookishness and more Raw Power of The Planes/The Gods.

Probably a mix of skills needed, eg for flexibility and relying on fellow party members, I'm assuming.

But I really like the sounds of the Ranger archetype emphasis on tracking.

Goblin Works Blog wrote:

Rangers—masters of tracking. Knowledgeable, patient, and skilled hunters, these characters hound man, beast, and monster alike, gaining insight into the way of the predator.

Sounds ideal for finding particular quarry and for bandit work. Probably mix in some Druid skills around the hide-out location, I'd guess too. It'd be interesting to attack not only traders but other bandits also and give various bounty-hunters the slip too. :)

An interesting skill for rangers, would be a bit like crafting their own "rat runs" in their home area, which would be invisible to other players but a ranger could use like express speed-runs and possibly a bit like an obstacle course for anyone else pursuing eg around boulders, up and along some trees, along a river and so on. A sort of network of interconnected trails which x2/3 speed boost to the ranger and possibly a few bolt holes to emerge elsewhere within 50m radius etc? It would make a tactical home territory eg around a bandit hide-out interesting and an investment to build such a network. /just another idea.

Depending on how skills work really. Really wanna do a ranger type character with emphasis on exploring, tracking and hiding. Waiting for the right time to strike. Go into some banditry. Make a deal with a master crafter to not be hitting his caravans, only his opponents, give him the loot and get some fine items.

Also like the idea of a adventurous gnome with a big crossbow. Jan comes to mind :)

I'm going to go against the flow here and state that I am interested in creating a crafter.

My understanding of the leveling system is that you can make an 'archetype', but still be an excellent crafter, although until we see something concrete, that might just be conjecture (limitation of programming code, lack of money, overly complex etc etc etc)

Ranger or Wizard, depending. I'd like to second Caedryan's statement of gameplay being a major influence, but...
I'll probably have a sophisticated good aligned wizard type crafter/builder/gets-stuff-done-er for when I want to really PLAY the game.
Then - on a second account - just a ranger or fighter (gameplay depending) for just going and smashing stuff or ambushing a caravan. You know? Some days, you just don't really want to accomplish anything except looting a dungeon and ruining the day of some nice person.

Without knowing anything about how combat will flow or how the classes will be structured (someone above said skill-focused instead of class focused, which I kinda like)...

I would probably have to say Fighter and Summoner, for a couple reasons.

For Fighter, I'm really interested to see how the class deals with access to so many weapons and so varied a play style. You can do a whole lot of stuff as a Fighter in the tabletop RPG, so I'm interested to see just how versatile its MMO counterpart is as well.

For Summoner, it's mostly how the Eidolon works, how it's controlled, and how useful it is in different situations. At the same time, I'd be interested to see how the many different Summoner Archetypes work as well.

I'm most interested in playing a human ranger/paladin. If there's a Feat to multi-class from paladin then I'll probably level up as a ranger more than I would otherwise, but it's not necessary to the build I have in mind.

I'm most interested in playing a human ranger/paladin. If there's a Feat to multi-class from paladin then I'll probably level up as a ranger more than I would otherwise, but it's not necessary to the build I have in mind.

There's no needed feats or requirements to multiclass, the only thing lost in multiclassing in PFO is that if you don't do them in order (IE all 20 of one, then all 20 of the other), then you will miss out on a capstone in the classes, which is overall implied to be a very small skill with a larger goal of granting braging rights rather than making you more powerful.

That being said, there will also likely be larger limits on how things work with different weapons. IE a weapon that works well for smite evil, will likely not be able to effectively gain benefits of favored enemy, etc... as well changing weapons will likely not be as simple as a hotbar click.

necromancer or sorerer with undead bloodline and cleric with undead lord archetype. eventually with the agent of the grave and mystic thurge prestige classes and finnaly with the lich templet as icing on the cake. most likly be L/E and quit the buisnessman with a small army of undead following me around. If for any reason this is not enough i'm with everyone else in we want golems and all that stuff that comes with them.

Definately a female halfling named Mindiana Jones, who goes exploring ancient ruins and brings back artifacts and stuff. Probably stealth, magic, a doublebladed sword and a whip. I hope they have the feat that let's you make touch attacks with a melee weapon :)

I'm really looking forward to tanking out. Straight fighter going out and kicking ass and taking names across the land Conan style. Once I've run that through, I'll swing back for some wizard time, taking the intellectual path.